Super Eagles goalkeeper Maduka Okoye has revealed that he had a sleepless night after his mistake cost the Super Eagles a place in the quarter-finals of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
Let us remember that a few minutes into the second half, Youssef Msakni shot from outside the area, which Okoye should have taken better advantage of but couldn’t, and which ended in a goal for Tunisia and led to Nigeria’s elimination from the tournament.
His comment did not go down well with Nigerians, who harshly criticized him on social media.
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However, in an interview with OmaSports TV, the Udinese goalkeeper stated that the pain still exists in his mind.
“At that moment I told myself that I should have done better. It hurts me to this day, to be honest.
“You could see it was a mistake because I had to keep the ball out of the goal. If I want to play for Inter Milan, I have to do better in these situations.
“I’ve been training hard, improving over the last two years because I don’t want things like that to happen again.
“Mistakes happen, last week Manuel Neuer, who is one of the best, made a mistake. It’s part of the game and as a kid it was hard for me to get over it after it happened.
“I’m not just talking about what I read on social media, but rather the feeling of letting down your teammates, your family and your country.
“At this point, I don’t even read nonsense on social media anymore. Some people still speak badly about Cristiano Ronaldo despite his achievements.
“People will always say bad things about you. I know myself that I didn’t do well in that situation and I know that I let my teammates and my country down in that situation.
“And to this day I feel unhappy and sad about it, and I wish I could do something different, but it happened and I learned from my mistake.”
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